The Brunswick senior guard has been selected as the Sun Journal’s player of the year.
By Randy Whitehouse
Staff Writer

Ralph Mims had just put on one of the most dynamic performances in tournament history, scoring 41 points, including 34 straight, in the Eastern Class A final.

The senior guard from Brunswick was asked if he realized that he had scored all 34 of his team’s points from the start of the second quarter to late in the fourth quarter.

“Nah, I don’t worry about that,” he said. “I don’t care how many points I score. What matters to me is we just won the Eastern Maine championship.”

Then he was asked if he felt obligated to step up in the regional final after fouling out in the Dragons’ semifinal the night before.

“That’s what seniors do,” Mims said.

The matter-of-fact way in which Mims critiqued his own remarkable performance spoke volumes for the two-time Sun Journal Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year.

A four-year starter at Brunswick and three-time All-State guard, Mims went from one of the stars of Brunswick’s 2002 state championship team to the state’s biggest star in 2003 and 2004.

Yet he remained humble and kept the focus on his team rather than himself, even as the glare of the spotlight intensified.

“He really was the consummate teammate for the four years I had him,” said Brunswick coach Todd Hanson.

“Obviously, he’s very skilled, but he really was genuinely concerned about his teammates and how to make them better.”

Still, he stood apart from those teammates, even as a freshman, when he was playing on a team with two-time KVAC Player of the Year Dan Hammond.

“As a freshman, he was exceptionally gifted,” said Hanson. “I remember once that year, he got a rebound and kind of threw the ball across his body with a baseball pass, and I mean he threw a rope, 84 feet to the other end of the court for a layup. That’s when I knew then we had something special there.”

By his sophomore year, which he capped by scoring 31 in the state championship game against Nick Caner-Medley and Deering, Mims was widely considered the heir apparent to Caner-Medley as the state’s next great player.

While media and fans speculated about what records Mims would break his junior and senior years or what Division I school he would decide to attend (he has narrowed the list down to two – Providence and Florida State), all Mims wanted to talk about was going on another title run with his team.

“None of these guys were here when I got to experience it my sophomore year, and I want my teammates to get a chance to experience it, too,” he said.

Mims nearly pulled it off, scoring a Class A tournament record 46 points in the state championship game before Brunswick lost to Portland in overtime. “Ralph single-handily kept us in that game,” Hanson said. “He was just exhausted by the end. We had to have (Justin) Gauvin bring the ball up, and still we were just a couple of missed layups away. “

After the game, Mims said he had no regrets and offered his congratulations to the champions. Long after the gold ball was handed out, he was spotted on the Cumberland County Civic Center floor, signing autographs for Portland fans.

Even to this day, it is Mims’ performance that is still the talk of Maine basketball, not Portland’s victory.

“I’m not sure Ralph even knows the impact he’s had on this program and basketball in Maine,” Hanson said. “But he’s such a great kid. Off the court he’s kind of what you’d expect someone whose father is in the military. Everything’s ‘yes, sir’ or ‘yes, ma’am, ‘no sir’ or ‘no ma’am.”

“As good a player as Ralph is,” he added, “and he’s certainly going to go down as one of the best players to ever play in Maine, he’s a better person.”

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